Letter 7014: **From:** Gregory I, Bishop of Rome

To Constantius, Bishop. [Argument:] Let him not be disturbed by slanders. Let him ordain a bishop within three months in the place of one deposed. Gregory to Constantius, Bishop of Milan. Know that I have already long since learned from the report of many men with what darts of tongues and with what snares of evil hearts the ancient enemy of the human race has judged that you ought to be assailed. But, as you know, in all the adversities that befall us in this life the strict judgment of Almighty God alone is to be weighed, and we must always return to our own heart, so that no man's tongue there entangle us where conscience does not accuse. For whomever conscience excuses is free even amid accusation; and one cannot be free even without accusation, if conscience alone, which condemns within, accuses. Far be it, therefore, from the judgment of Christians regarding your Holiness that we should believe the things fabricated by the rumors of slanderous men to be brought forward as a ground of suspicion in any measure whatsoever; for we hold also the testimony of sacred Scripture, that when graver evils are perhaps spoken of, they ought not to be believed unless proved, but, once proved, should be the more speedily punished. For God Himself, who created all things and beholds all that He has made, moved by the requiting of grave evils, says: The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah has come up to me; I will go down to see whether they have done according to the outcry that I have heard, and I will take vengeance; or whether it is not so, that I may know (Genesis xviii, 20 seq.). To what end would God go down, that He might know what had been done? Or what would He not know who is everywhere? But that He might give us an example of discernment in our ignorance, namely that we ought not to believe grave evils that we hear, He says of Himself that He goes down to take knowledge, of whom it is plain to all that even without going down He would know all things. These things, then, I have said in order to show that it is a mark of excessive levity if anyone is eager to believe grave evils that cannot be proved. Wherefore your Holiness ought to detach your mind from the rumors and the slander of slanderous men, and to think only on those things which are of eternal life and which profit toward the benefit of those under your charge; for it is perhaps to this very end that the ancient enemy has wished to entangle you with such care, that, while the spirit of your Fraternity is unceasingly occupied with the things that are his own, it may think less of others' concerns, and may offer no comfort of the word to those under you, and may by no strictness gainsay those who act perversely. For so it is wont to happen in bodily warfare, that the enemy violently assails the one who carries the standard in the contest; so that, if he who is regarded by the rest receives a wound, the whole multitude, sooner scattered, may be taken. This wound, therefore, of the report brought against you, your Fraternity ought not to feel, but rather to care for the life and the betterment of those committed to you, so that you may be able, before the Judge who is to come, to render a good account both of your own innocence and of the betterment of your subjects. But the other matters which pertain to the need of the time we have charged to be intimated to you by word through Marinianus, your defender. Moreover, as for that bishop whom we have found by your Fraternity to have been deposed: since the sacred canons, as you know, ordain that a church is not to remain vacant beyond three months, if a manifest crime has appeared in him, let it be in every way the concern of your zeal to ordain a bishop in his place, since a church ought not to be long without its own ruler. In the month of March, fifteenth indiction.

AD CONSTANTIUM EPISCOPUM. Obtrectationibus non moveatur. Depositi a 8e episcopi : loco alum intra tres menses ordinet. Gregorius Constantio episcopo Mediolanensi. Eersr. XI. — * In Ediiis rec., quepiam vasa. In. Norm. et al. legitur quemquam., © Ibid., muluate pecuni@. Eewr. XIV. — * Ex hac epist. desumpta legimus extra. de accusation:bus, ac prevertim in capitibus Qualiter et (Juando, ex epis!. lunocentii HI, et ex concil. Lateranensi. GUSSANY. SANCTI GRECORII MACNI 868 * Antiquus hamani generis inimicus quibus vos linguarum jaculis et malorum cordium in+idiis exisli- mavit impetendos, relatione mu'torum jam dudurn me -audi<se cognoscite. Sed Þ in cunctis ( Grat, it, 9.5, c. 52) quz in bac vita adversa proveniunt, $sola es, Sicut noslis, omnipulentis Dei districtio peu- sanda , atque ad cor semper proprium recurrendun. , ut nullivs nos ibi lingua implicet, ubi conscientia non accusat. Quem enim conscientia defe:iGit, et inter accusationem liber est ; et liber vel sine accusatione es8e non. potest, $i 8ola quz interius addicit, con- Scientia accusat, De vestra igitur $anclitale absii a Chri>tianorum judicio © ea que naledicorum homi- num rumoribus couſicta credimus in qualicunque modulo $u$picionis adduci , quia et sacri eloquii te- B $!i-vonium tenemus, ut majora mala cum forsitan di- cuntur, nisi probata credi non debeant, sed probala citius ulcisci. Nam ipse qui omnia creavit, et cuncta que condidit intuetur Deus, malorum gravium vul- tione commotus, ait : Clamor Sodoma et Gomorrhe ascendit ad me; 4 descendo ut videam utrum clamorem quem audivi , opere complererint, et ulciscar ; an non e>l ita ut sciam ( Genes. xvin, 20, 8eq.)? Quo cuim descenderet Deus ut que essent ſacta cognosceret ? Aut quid non is qui ubique est scCiret? Sed ut noswra ignorantiz exemplum discretionis daret, quatenus deberemus mala gravia audita non credere, jpse $e dicit adl cognoscendum descendere, de quo omnibus liquet quia et non desceudens omnia 8ciret. Hec igi- tur dixi, ut nimiz esse levilatis ostenderem , si quis mala gravia credere $ludeatquz probari non possunt. Unde $anctitas vesira debet mentem suam a maledi- corum hominum rumoribus atque obtrectatione dis- jungere, et Sola que * zierne vile sunt, alque ad ulilitatem subditorum proficiunt, cogitare quia et ad hoc fortasse antiquus hostis 1lali cura implicari vos voluit, ut dum fralernitalis vestre animus eiga ea que $ua sunt indesinenter occupalur, aliena minus cogitet, et pullum verbi solatium subditis inſerat, alque perverse agentibus nulia districtiene coniradi- cat. Sic namque in corporali przlio fieri solet, ut is qui in certamiae vexillum portat, ipsum hostis vehe- n:enter impetat ; quatenus $i ipse qui a c2leris at- lenditur, GG] vuluns acceperit , multitudo omnis citius dispersa capiatur. Hoc igitur f opinionis illatze D vulnus sentiie veslra fraternitas non debet, scd vi- - tam atque meliorationem $ibi commissorum curare , quatenus venturo judici bonam possilis et de vesira | innocentia et de 8ubjectorum melioratione ponere rationem. Cztera autem quz ad utilitalem temporis q. 5, a cap. 49 ad 59. Hlinc videre est quantum <£it in przelatis maſum credulitas, qua lztantur calum- niatores, viri boni fatiscunt. Noverat Gregorius, et hac medetur epistla. Ea de re Lucianus librum edi- dit, quem videsis. AUGET. Corb., Reg. In 1.onnul:is lamen Yatic. et Reg. legitur, adducere pro adduci. Prins legebatur in Excugis : ut ea qu@..... con ficta sunt credamus' in qualicunque mo- dulo 8uspicionis adducere. Nosirz lectioni suflragatur Gratianus hunc locum referens., $69 EPISTOLARUM LIB. VH. — INDICT. XV. — EPIST. XVI. 870 congruunt, per Marinianum defensorem vesirum A ribus mortna est (Jac. 1, 20). $i ergo fideles nune vobis verbo intimanda mandavimus. Illum vero episcopum quem Aa fraternitale vestra invenimus esse 8 depositum , postquam £acri cano- nes, Sicut nostis, Þ ultra tres menses Ecclesjam, prie- cipiant non vacare , si manifestum in eo crimen ap- paruit , Joco ejus episcopum $1tudii vestri sit modis omnibus ordinare, quia diu sine proprio rectore essC non debet Ecclesia. i Mense Martio, ind. 15.